


Something's not right.

by PastelSweetPea



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings (Movies)
Genre: Fire is basically a character in this with how often I mention it whoops, Slight Bilbo/Thranduil, Slightly OOC characters, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, more to be added later - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-01-30 07:27:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12648936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PastelSweetPea/pseuds/PastelSweetPea
Summary: When tradgedy strikes, sometimes it is rather hard to cope.(in other words its a pretty Ok fic I just suck at summaries)





	1. Hearts only freeze for a reason.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic I post since like 2014 but I've lurked in the fandom since!

               It had been dragon fire that had claimed the left side of his face all those many years ago, taking with it part of his vision so understandably while it was not discussed, most understood their kings caution around flames. Especially when his son was born, it wasn’t too long later when there was a fire, the little prince and light of his father's world had been merely a toddler, barely beginning to understand the world. He had been in the nursery with his mother, close to the kitchen and unfortunately too close to the broken oven's rageing flames to escape in time. The king however refused to believe that his family was gone entirely as the prince was currently in dire condition, but alive. He grieved for his wife and there were whispers around the kingdom that the king was only coping because of his son. 

              The last words spoken by the little prince were to call for his Adar, whom responded to the request to be held while the life slipped from the too small, too thin, too broken body. It was hours before healers dared to approach and gently attempt to tell the already broken hearted king the sad news. Instead of accepting it the king had clutched his child closer to his chest and growled at them to get blankets for his son, couldn’t they see he was freezing? 

              After discussion it was found that the king’s sight in his remaining eye wasn’t the strongest due to his own injuries in the previous fire and the healers had managed to swap out the prince’s body with a rather convincing doll while the prince was supposedly napping, adding a bit of a glamor to aid with the appearance. The king didn’t notice when he picked up the doll from the crib and held it close, humming a quiet lullaby that the healers wondered who it was supposed to soothe, the dead prince or the king himself.

  
             There was concern among the people but the head healers assured the king's advisors it would only be for a few weeks to help him cope, mothers who lost children were sometimes given something similar after all. 

            Weeks crawled by, the king’s schedule soon revolving around the doll he was convinced to be his son, spending hours caring for it, brushing it’s golden hair and trying to make sure it was fed properly, putting it down to sleep by walking around his study and humming, it arranged carefully in his arms as he went over documents. The king’s advisors soon grew accustomed to the ever present doll as it seemed their king was back to normal in almost every way except his grief, and perhaps he was a bit more cold than before. It was understandable really, the great elf had been through a lot of pain in his long life. 

           The healers and his advisors had attempted on occasion to break the connection between the doll and their king, but it always seemed to be in vain, causing enough distress in one instance where they had to pin down their king while others ran to find it, in fear he may do something drastic. After that most seemed to think he’d notice the dolls lack of growth or communication in a year’s or so time and so let the matter slip from notice once more. The public seemed to think the same for the most part, or had lost children of their own and understood the grief, most shuddering at the thought of losing their whole family in one fell swoop. 

           It was to this effect that a group of 13 very confused dwarves and one very confused but still invisible hobbit were brought in front of the great elven king of Mirkwood, who was reclined in his throne, with a doll cradled in his lap in the most gentle sense of the word.


	2. There's something in his eyes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are best left forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lmao whoops I didn't mean to leave this alone for so long but uh, I moved and everything's been chaos.

    There was definitely something wrong, not that anyone was going to tell the rather intimidating elf that was currently their captor that. Nope. No thank you. Instead the company merely glanced among themselves as the king rose in one fluid motion to his feet and tucked the admittedly decent looking doll closer to his body while slightly swaying as a mother would to soothe a weeping babe. This was barely noticeable however over the glare they were getting as a whole. “I’ve been told.” the king began while descending the stairs to his throne his tone almost scolding “That someone has been trying to pass through my lands without permission.” Thranduil rumbled, handing off the doll to one of the advisors that was waiting at the bottom of the stair. 

    Bilbo, seeing his opportunity to learn more, and to hopefully not get stepped on or run into and ruin the ruse followed rather quickly after the nurse missing the whole rest of the speech while he tried his best to silently trail after the elf, she wasn’t exactly hurried but it was clear she knew the pathway like the back of her hand. To Bilbo’s immense surprise however she stopped in a room that he thought the king must somehow not know the contents of since another elf glanced up as if guilty for a moment before continuing to work on a sculpture of...what looked to be a mini version of the king? Surely the king wasn’t so vain as to have toy makers commissioned to sell small versions of himself? That would just be absurd, the two elves chatted amongst themselves for awhile and with what limited elvish he did know he only picked up the word ‘son’. 

    That made sense Bilbo supposed, maybe the king was having a doll made of his son for his nameday or something similar, however now that Bilbo thought on it a bit longer he’d never rightly heard that the elven king had a son. Thoroughly confuzzled and a bit bemused he watched as the female elf, a nurse by the looks of her clothes deposited the doll she’d had in her arms, while daring to sneak a bit closer while he hoped that the rings powers continued to work he found the face of the doll rather worn, as if it were decades old and well loved by a child or at least played with often. That just didn’t make sense to Bilbo however, what use would a king have for a doll? Surely he had a kingdom to run and didn’t exactly have time to play with children's toys? The dolls clothes however looked like they’d just been changed that day though the hair showed almost identical wear to the face, small patches of it even missing completely. 

    What truly stunned the hobbit however was the fact that when the nurse began to get ready to leave after her conversation with the toy maker she picked up a new doll that he supposed looked like a new version, though this one’s eyes weren’t just carved into the wood but had what looked to be an orb of glass inside a socket, something he’d seen on some more expensive dolls that had come to the Shire in the past few years from dwarf merchants claiming their dolls could ‘sleep’ like actual children but this was the first time he put credit to the idea. The female elf stripped the worn toy and Bilbo found himself mildly impressed with how realistic the doll had once been, it was a pretty decent recreation of a child that looked to be just be entering his toddling years. 

    This new doll was also stripped down and a cloth diaper fastened around it’s lower regions before the old dolls clothes were quickly affixed on and a few joints were moved before the female elf wrapped it in a blanket and swiftly left, as if she were in a great hurry. This interested Bilbo further as she’d appeared fairly unhurried to get to the toy makers room before hand and he followed, though due to his attempt at silence he had to follow at a more subdued pace. 

    He was led deep into the castle, or at least that’s what it felt like due to the winding path and the increasingly rare passings by of other servants or elves in general. It wasn’t long after this observation that the woman stopped in front of a room with double doors leading on, she opened it easily and while the two doors swung open Bilbo quickly slid inside, not wanting to be left outside nor get hit with what sounded like very heavy wooden doors.  The woman walked through what looked to be a sitting room, which if that was what it was Bilbo was unsure why it looked so unused and almost...cold as if a fire had never been lit in the hearth and no warmth or good memories had in that room, however still avidly curious he continued to follow. Hoping against hope that he’d be able to find something and report back to Thorin and the rest about any intel he got.   
  


    It was soon apparent however...that he wasn’t exactly prepared for this. Bilbo had to cover his mouth rather quickly to stop the gasp that wanted to escape as he walked in behind the elf to find a nursery, the doll being laid down in a rather lavish looking crib that’d had deer and other forest motif carved in the rich wood. A small mobile even hung with little stars  hanging down at various lengths that if the doll was a real child would no doubt entice the babe to reach up and grab at them. The elf looked rather unfazed and almost bored while she wound a hidden music box, as if she herself seemed to believe that this doll actually was alive. Distantly Bilbo heard the large doors open once more and watched while the nurse whispered a few words and the doll appeared to blink its fake eyelids though what other magic she’d willed into the wood Bilbo was unsure.    


    He was very nearly caught out however when he failed to realize that the king had walked into the nursery behind him, apparently done with the company and had tripped on Bilbo’s foot. Something he hadn’t seen very often was an elf flailing like that nor did he ever think he’d seen one look around in confusion to try and figure out what had tripped it, he thankfully slunk away to the other side of the crib in silence while the king seemed to believe he’d hit the edge of a rocking chair and though seemingly shaken continued to advance towards the crib, talking quietly as if to not wake the doll that lay in it. The female elf responded with a few sentences before she was dismissed, rather quickly leaving as if she didn’t want to be in the same room as the king. 

 

    Thranduil for his part, picked up the doll and took the few short strides to the large rocking chair and settled in it, bringing the dolls head to rest against his chest as he rubbed his thumb against the soft cheek of the doll. Bilbo thought this was odd and continued his silent watching, almost not daring to breathe in case the rumors of what people said of the elves were true, he actually thought he might have a heart attack when the king suddenly looked up and nearly at the exact spot that Bilbo was occupying. The king simply sighed and continued to rock the doll and himself slowly, appearing to zone out from what Bilbo could tell since after a few moments the elf stopped blinking, resting against the chair more fully and eventually the rocking stopped, it was only then that Bilbo realized the elf had fallen asleep.    


    Something he’d never had the privilege of witnessing was an elf asleep, it was strange to him, how they slept with their eyes open and he supposed it was probably partially due to this fact that he’d never happened upon one that was asleep! Thranduil did in fact look exhausted...well as exhausted as an elf could look and soon Bilbo noticed something very, very strange. It at first looked like his eyes were going blurry as if with tears or if he’d gotten smoke in them from a hot fire. He blinked a few times to try and clear them and frowned, quite off put when that didn’t help, he looked around the room and found that no it was just when he looked at the king that was clutching at the doll resting against his chest that his eyes felt funny like that. This continued for a few more minutes until eventually the hobbit realized he could see something different on the elf’s face. It looked strange as the glamor slowly wore off since Bilbo wasn’t used to seeing something of that sort and in his best description it was like he watched white ink spill over the sleeping elf’s left eye and the skin on the left side of his face melt to what looked to be grievous injuries,even for an elf to bear.

    Bilbo watched in horrible fascination and awe as Thranduil’s other eye clouded slightly but not quite as much as the other, leaving him to wonder exactly what he was witnessing before silently slipping out of the room, realizing this was likely one of his only opportunities to do so. This was an issue however since the large doors to the kings chambers were closed and he couldn’t exactly open them without fear of waking the king or even drawing suspicion of any passing by servant who saw the doors open on their own volition. Bemused on how to solve his problem other than waiting for Thranduil to wake or a different servant to come in who knows how much later he began to explore the chambers, not daring to move anything just yet as he didn’t exactly know how well everything was watched or how many people were allowed in here, though judging by the bed that looked to be slept in often due to the slight dip in the mattress it was only the king and the doll which occupied the nursery. 

    He was musing on this fact and the confusing state of the hearth in the room, which looked as if it’d never seen a fire lit in it once when the big doors swung open to admit a rather peeved looking elf that marched right towards him.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if I should continue as I have quite a few more idea's for the plot already.


End file.
